Apple has announced that pre-orders are available for Apple OS X 10.5 Leopard that will ship on October 26, 2007. To see what will be included, there is a page on Apple.com that lists more than 300 new features that will be included. Enjoy.

Apple software

Type a ‘w’ or the word ‘word’, and Microsoft Word is launched. Type ‘ppt’ and Microsoft PowerPoint is launched. Type ‘g’ and Google is launched in your browser. It may not seem like it, but typing a few letters is even easier than mousing over to desktop icons.

SlickRun is a utility that floats on your Windows desktop and lets you assign a program path to a short word or just one letter. For example; typing ‘w’ in SlickRun on my machine launches ‘C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office12\WINWORD.EXE’ which is the path to Microsoft Word. You can define as many shortcuts as you like, and there are options for window size, parameters, and startup paths.

software tools Windows

File this one under, free, easy, and small programs that make life easier.

Unlocker is  a Windows program that puts itself on the right-click menu, and allows you to delete files or folders that don’t get deleted because they are “Being used by another person or program.” You know the file or folder isn’t in use, or shouldn’t be, but until Unlocker, there was nothing you could do.

More details at MakeUseOf.

software tools

By now, you know about online file transfer services like YouSendIt. No?

TransferBigFiles.comups the free file size limit to 2 GB, and they offer a client program that speeds up transfers which is good, because lugging around files this size is sure to take up a good chunk of time.  What I find interesting is that we are rapidly approaching the ability to transfer a full DVD’s worth of info. Hey, got a copy of the first Lord of the Rings that I can check out?

file size files software tools video Website

Now you can cast your gaze upward and see Vega, Regulus, and Polaris. Google Earth 4.2, once downloaded and installed, now includes star maps. Moons, planets, constellations, galaxies are all visible and zoomable. You can see the night sky for your current earth location, and there is even a layer for Hubble space telecope pictures.

constellations google Search software space stars

Easy Duplicate Finderis a free program that does just what is says. When you install and run it, you will get back a list of original files and their duplicates. Duplicates are located based on the contents of the file and not the file name. Results are presented with originals and duplicates right next to each-other for easy management. File locating can be restricted by file type, directory, folder, and size.

duplicates files software tools utilities